What is Bunny Bonding?

      Bonds are important life-long commitments that bunnies share, whether in pairs or groups. Bonds formed in wild rabbits and hares revolve around a specific geographic area where the group resides, forages for food, manages the group's safety, births and rears young, and utilizes instinctual skills. Bunnies born into the colony are bonded to the others naturally. They settle in to individual roles for the benefit of the group.
        In house rabbits, bonds do not usually come naturally and are delicate. Under certain circumstances, bonds can break. Broken bonds can lead to fights. House bunnies forge bonds through stages including introduction, acquaintanceship, and friendship. Since they don't have a large colony of friends and lots of space as wild bunnies do, house rabbits are at a natural disadvantage in bonding. Their bonds revolve around the sharing of valuable resources: litterboxes, food, activities, and space. The greatest indication of binding between bunnies are two key things:  behavior emulation and physical closeness. Communal enrichment activities that encourage use of instinctual behaviors like digging, jumping, rooting, foraging, lifting, pushing, and pulling help make bonds. 
            When bunnies go through the bonding process, they learn to share resources, be cordial to each other, live together peacefully in a designated space, and, eventually be trusted to free roam together without the need for human intervention. My bonding approach applies bonding goals in a systematic and strategic way while reducing or eliminating anxiety for both bunnies and humans.